72 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



Species of this genus inhabit principally the northern parts of the world, and are 

 generally characterized by the prevalence of gray or cinereous, of various shades, in 

 their plumage. 



SYRNIUM CINEREUM. Audubon. 

 The Great Gray Owl. 



Strix cinerea, Gm. Syst. Nat, I. 291 (1788). Aud. Orn. Biog., IV. 364. 

 Strix acclimator, Bartram. Travels, 289 (1790). 



DESCRIPTION. 



The largest Owl of North America. Head very large; eyes small; tail rather 

 'ong; upper parts smoky or ashy brown, mottled and transversely barred with 

 ashy- white; under parts ashy-white, with numerous longitudinal stripes of dark 

 ashy-brown predominating on the breast, and with transverse stripes of the same on 

 the abdomen, legs, and under tail coverts; quills brown, with about live wide, irregu- 

 lar bands of ashy-white; tail brown, with five or six wide, irregular bands of ashy- 

 white, mottled with dark -brown; feathers of the disc on the neck tipped with white; 

 eye nearly encircled by a black spot ; radiating feathers around the eye, with regular 

 transverse narrow bars of dark-brown and ashy-white; bill pale- yellow; claws pale 

 yellowish -white, darker at their tips; iris bright-yellow. 



Total length, twenty-five to thirty inches; wing, eighteen; tail, twelve to fifteen 

 inches. 



This bird is an extremely rare winter visitor in New Eng- 

 land ; appearing only in the southern districts of these 

 States, in Massachusetts even, in very severe seasons. I 

 never saw one alive ; have, of course, never seen its nest, 

 and can add nothing at all to our knowledge of its habits. 

 It breeds in the most northern regions ; and, according to 

 Dr. Brewer, " nests in high trees." Its eggs I have never 

 seen. Audubon gives the following account of this spe- 

 cies : 



"The comparatively small size of this bird's eyes renders it 

 probable that it hunts by day ; and the remarkable smallness of its 

 feet and claws induces me to think that it does not prey on large 

 animals. Dr. Richardson says, that ' it is by no means a rare bird 

 in the fur countries ; being an inhabitant of all the woody districts 

 lying between the Lake Superior and latitudes 67 or 68, and 

 between Hudson's Bay and the Pacific. It is common on the 

 borders of Great Bear Lake ; and there, and in the higher parallels 

 of latitude, it must pursue its prey, during the summer months, by 

 daylight. It keeps, however, within the woods, and does not fre- 

 quent the barren grounds, like the Snowy Owl ; nor is it so often met 



